Rebirth Day

"Young man, how did you find me?" The mayor shook the double-barreled shotgun in his hand and asked grimly.

Shen Feng said, "I just happened to hear breathing behind this."

After injecting that pile of genetic enhancement drugs, his senses had become much sharper. He had vaguely heard the mayor breathing just now, which was why he had sent Firefly away before coming to take a look himself.

He had not expected the mayor to be hiding back there.

"You... aren't you afraid of the Holy Gun in my hand? All I need to do is point it at you, and the Holy Gun can take your life!" The mayor narrowed his eyes. He could sense not the slightest trace of fear from the young man.

Shen Feng grinned. "Afraid? Of course I'm afraid. I may have had a few lucky encounters, but if a Remington blew my head off, I'd still die for sure. But I'm not afraid of one without the safety off."

The moment he finished speaking, he moved swiftly, grabbed the barrel of the mayor's shotgun, and yanked it to the side.

The mayor only felt an immense force surge toward him. Before he could react, the shotgun in his hands had already been snatched away by Shen Feng!

The outsider skillfully opened the chamber and checked it, then grinned. "No bullets, just as I thought."

After a month of fighting in the Stone Statue Apocalypse, Shen Feng had become extremely familiar with shotguns.

The way the mayor had held the gun just now had been wrong. He had not braced himself against the recoil at all.

"You..." Seeing the gun in his hand taken by Shen Feng, the mayor opened his mouth. Then he suddenly burst into laughter and said, "Does it make a difference whether there are bullets or not?"

Shen Feng now fully understood that the mayor of Nameless Town had long since run out of ammunition for this gun.

All this time, he had relied on people's instinctive fear of guns to intimidate everyone and maintain order here.

Now that Shen Feng had exposed him, the mayor instead looked as though he had accepted it. He took back the double-barreled shotgun, beckoned Shen Feng over, and led him out of the temple to the small building where he lived alone.

When they entered, Shen Feng could not help but pause in surprise.

Though the room was somewhat shabby as well, it had tables, chairs, beds, and even a coffee table. Its furnishings were much like those of an ordinary home.

To see such furnishings in the apocalypse was truly rare.

The mayor sprawled on the sofa, crossed one leg over the other, propped his feet on the table, and asked:

"From Peach Haven? Which shelter did you come out of? How are things there?"

From the mayor's term for shelters, Shen Feng immediately understood that this mayor was clearly no ordinary man. He might know quite a bit about pre-war civilization and the current state of human civilization.

Instead of answering the mayor's question, he asked directly, "Where can I find a missile launch base? After the nuclear war broke out, the command system should have moved underground. Was it inside the shelters? Also, have you heard anything about nuclear warheads?"

The mayor froze, clearly a little dazed by Shen Feng's barrage of questions. But Shen Feng's words also confirmed his previous judgment. He said slowly:

"You really did come from a shelter... Which one? Shelter 7? Shelter 13? Only those large shelters still have good stuff like cigarettes... You're from the latest generation of shelter dwellers, aren't you? As for the missile launch base you mentioned, I don't know what that is. It was too long ago..."

The mayor seemed to recall something. His gaze grew distant, and the way he looked at Shen Feng became much kinder.

Shen Feng chuckled and pulled the remaining half-pack of cigarettes from his pocket, along with a one-yuan plastic lighter, then tossed them to the mayor.

The mayor hurriedly caught the cigarettes. He took one out and greedily sniffed it beneath his nose for a while, then picked up the lighter and examined it for quite some time before lighting the cigarette. He took a greedy drag and let out a satisfied sigh.

Naturally, he pocketed the remaining cigarettes and the lighter as well.

Shen Feng found a chair and sat down, then asked again:

"The final command system? The location of the strategic missile launch base? News about nuclear warheads?"

Now that the mayor had accepted his cigarettes, he put on a thoughtful expression and said:

"Let me think... If you mean Shelter 0, rumor has it that it's to the northwest... As for that base, I think I heard a similar name when I was young, but it wasn't called that. It was called Dead Hand Base, and it should also be to the northwest. They say it's in the desert... Nuclear warheads... You mean the messengers of the God of East Wind? Its messengers come and go like ghosts. I've only seen them twice in my life. I really don't know where to find them."

Shen Feng nodded.

This mayor was a complete old fox. If Shen Feng was right, he had once been a member of some shelter, which was why he had received some basic education.

And he had taken Shen Feng for a shelter dweller too.

Seeing that Shen Feng said nothing, the mayor continued:

"What are you looking for those things for? If you want to kill yourself, you should pick a quicker way... Do you know a little girl from Shelter 6 named Qiao Qi? If you have any news about her, please tell me... Ha ha, she must have grown up by now..."

"To be honest, I sometimes regretted it over the years, but freedom is still more comfortable... It wasn't easy for you to make it here alive from a shelter... Ha ha, welcome to the real hell. There's nothing else here, but there's no shortage of death and freedom..."

Shen Feng could not help but say:

"Since the shelters still preserve the embers of civilization, why not unite and rebuild order and civilization across this land?"

Were those people really just going to hide in shelters and barely cling to life, letting the civilization outside disappear completely?

"Rebuild civilization?" The mayor looked as if he had heard something utterly ridiculous. "Did you just come out of a shelter? Didn't anyone tell you? Forget it. Let's talk after Rebirth Day... Go on, I need some time alone."

Taking a long drag from his cigarette, the mayor exhaled clouds of smoke, his face intoxicated as he immersed himself in the haze.

Shen Feng said nothing more and turned to leave.

Back at the place he had just rented, Shen Feng took out another pack of cigarettes, used two of them to buy quite a few necessities, including a tattered set of clothes and a large bucket of water.

After resting for a while, night soon fell. Nameless Town became even livelier. Many people returned from outside, and it seemed that people from other settlements had come as well.

Everyone seemed to be rich. They began spending freely, eating and drinking to their hearts' content amid all manner of noise.

Torches made of scrap wood and broken plastic had been planted all over the dilapidated buildings lining the streets. The town, which had originally looked like ruins, had actually been made to look rather presentable.

The temple was even more crowded, filled with people closing their eyes and making imaginary tapping motions as they prayed devoutly.

Nearly everyone was kind, as though they were not people struggling to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but a gathering of pious believers.

Night swiftly deepened. Midnight was approaching, yet no one went to sleep.

"Shen Feng, Shen Feng!" Firefly's voice rang out from outside. The little girl ran in wearing a washed-out old T-shirt, no longer dressed in strips of bark and plastic.

Her hair seemed to have been washed clean too, and her face was much fairer.

She even wore a small hair clip on her head. Its plastic casing had been rubbed white, making its original pattern impossible to see.

"Let's celebrate together." Firefly said with a grin. "Come on, let's go to the roof."

Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Shen Feng's hand, pulled him up onto the roof, and lay flat there.

Shen Feng lay beside her, staring at the vast, boundless starry sky, and could not help but feel a little intoxicated.

A breeze drifted past, carrying a faint fragrance. Shen Feng could not help but sniff.

Firefly beside him blushed slightly and said with a smile, "I took a bath, hehe. It cost a hundred coins, and I even used the soap you gave me. So? Smells nice, right?"

At this time, the residents of Nameless Town, including the mayor, had all climbed onto the roofs of the buildings. Some lay down while others sat, gazing at the sky as though waiting for something.

Shen Feng could not help feeling puzzled. He asked, "Why is everyone on the roofs? Is this a Rebirth Day tradition?"

It felt a little like staying up on New Year's Eve, except there was no countdown to midnight.

"Shh..." Firefly whispered, "Rebirth is about to begin... I hope we can be reborn this time."

The moment she finished speaking, a meteor-like streak of light tore across the distant sky, slowly approaching from the west!

The tail flame of an intercontinental strategic missile's booster was like a comet's tail, awakening the sleeping earth.

"It's Trident! Poseidon's Trident is here!"